Glenda Bailey-Mershon

I come from the mountains, from a textile mill-working family. My mother and her mother could weave a knot that was barely visible, but which held under great stress. I've tried to apply their skill with threads to words. Here is my wider world view. Thanks be to all the ancestors who brought me here.

Write With Me Study Hall, Monday, May 9,2016: On the Road

Today we’re traveling down the California coast. In fact, we’re going to see another regular here, Bobbi, who is chasing the joy and anguish of young Randi, growing up in the 1950s. Of course we’ll talk about writing–and who knows what else. And somehow, on the way, I’ll find a minute or two to add to one of my three works in progress.

How about you? What are you doing today? Please tell us in the comments section below.

And in the meantime, here’s s bit of California for you, wherever you are:

9 Comments

Bobbi

Such a wonderful visit–wish we’d had at least two days more. After 25 years, and quite a few grandbabies between us, we had a lot of ground to cover. But we did finally get around to talking about writing.

As you saw, I’m using WriteWayPro, just for keeping track of characters and the action (chapter outlines, notes and storyboard) because I was already about 100 pages into Randi’s story on MS Word. But since it’s a word processor program, next time I’ll try using it from the start.

I also checked out WriteItNow. They both satisfied my needs and were easy to use with my Dragon Naturally Speaking 13, but I preferred the “look and feel” of WriteWay. Both offer free trial downloads, and–probably because WriteItNow has extra features I don’t need–I found WriteWay easier to navigate. And at $35 compared to $60, the final decision was easy.

I must confess that between my long Mothers Day weekend with all my kids and then your visit immediately after, I haven’t been writing much lately, but plan to devote a chunk of time to Randi tomorrow and more through the weekend.

Bobbi

2 hours, 450 words today, and I renamed some characters–thanks again for pointing that out. In my ‘defense,’ I did know families back then where everybody’s name started with the same letter, so I’ve kept that for Randi’s relatives. But even tho 1955 was pre-Barbie, my blond Ken is now Kevin, and Scott Ferguson became Scott Webber–less humorous for sure.

So lovely to see you, and I especially enjoyed our walk–both of us actually walking!!??!!

Hey, my siblings and I all have names that start with the same letter–Gordon, Gary, Gail, Gene, and Glenda. My mama had a thing, said once she started she couldn’t stop.

But in a story, it becomes a bit tiresome because you repeat names so many times in a short space–unless the alliteration is the point, of course. And I could see how it could be, signifying the conformity of the era.